Borlaug 100 wheat in Australia

In a quest for high-yielding wheat to use in the feedlot sector, growers in Queensland, Australia, have released the variety Borlaug 100, developed by breeders at the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT). “The fact that the variety has been released in other countries, and that its excellence is contributing as parental material for crosses in many, many other countries, is further proof of our global contribution to multiple stakeholders and farmers,” says Thomas Payne, Head of Wheat Genetic Resources and the Wheat Germplasm Bank at CIMMYT. The Australian growers, who are also the founders of Rebel Seeds, sought to grow wheat without protein requirements to sell to feedlots, a void that needed filling in Australia at the time of the company’s founding in 2015. Since being brought to the country shortly afterwards via the CIMMYT-Australia-ICARDA-Germplasm Evaluation (CAIGE) project as a solution to this problem, Borlaug 100 is now set to be commercially released by Rebel Seeds into the niche feedlot market. Grown as milling wheat in Mexico, Borlaug 100 is thought to be a suitable replacement for the wheat currently marketed by Rebel Seeds as a source of feed grain for livestock. As a result, Borlaug 100 will make its debut in Australia’s National Variety Trials Guide in 2019. Richard Trethowan, a former CIMMYT wheat breeder and now a professor at the University of Sydney, consulted Rebel Seeds throughout their acquisition of Borlaug 100.